Run over by bus or get doored? pick one
 

So a funny thing happened to me on the way here... (snare drum, floor tom, crash)

I just left work, it was 7 am here.. I´m tired and sleepy.
Rainy and cold. No many cars around.
I have long wide 4 lanes avenue down hill. I´m taking the center right lane. The right lane is occupied by parked cars, since it´s legal until 8 am.

A bus comes along and passes me, but not quite, it started to squeeze because it had to stop. I slow down and get to right. A cab driver opens the door. No more sleepy. Adrenaline pumped to a red alert level.

I´m not sure how I missed the accident. Maybe I had more space than perceived. But it surely took the heart out of my chest.

Note to myself #1: Look for an alternate street.
Note to myself #2: got those f@#*&ng brakes fixed.

I'll take the door over a bus any day, that way I can likely do some damage in return (my commuter bike is 30 pounds unloaded :eek: moving at speed I'm sure I could put a pretty sizeable dent in a door (and break some glass). That'll teach em to be more cautious

Get them fixed for sure. I had been putting it off myself and then someone posted a "How many times do you change your brake pads?" thread that prompted me to get off my butt and change them. I find I let things slide more that I should, just to keep riding everyday. It's a bad habit, I know. Reading some of these threads keeps reminding me to check things. Anyways, it's real nice to have working and responsive brakes again.

I guess I'd rather be doored. You can't say you feel unwanted when someone opens a door for you.

A couple of years ago a guy riding in Cambridge MA. got doored then run over by a bus, so you can do both. Unfortunatly you can't do both and live.

Ow, gear, nasty story. Yikes! Me? Doored, of course, is best, though having been badly doored once... it sucks. Anyhow, full doorings can be good, as you can put the hurt on the idiot who caused it. ;) The worst are doorings that knock you into traffic like happened to that young lady in Brooklyn this summer (she was killed, of course :( ).

Neither ... I rather be in control of the situation and ride cautiously.

I gotta agree with you there. Fortunately, it sounds like fatdogvinn was at least cautious enough to avoid a painful encounter this time.

He was actually a she by the name of Dana Laird. You can read all about it here, if you so desire: http://www.bikexprt.com/massfacil/ca...gram/laird.htm

In that particular instance, the bus driver did nothing wrong, it was merely in an adjacent lane when she was doored and fell into its path. Wheel skirts might have helped, though.

The take away lesson there is the danger of door zone bike lanes.

Personally in the scenario that the OP mentions, seeing the bus signal to pull over or even just slowing, I would have gotten on it's left corner and prepared to pass on the left as is usual and expected.

To answer your question: I would choose to get doored :D

Cuatious? A little, I was not going very fast, and it´s not like I had time to reason which one will be the least worst accident. I just rolled through. I don´t really know how I pulled it off. I guess I had more space than perceived, and the bus was not going very fast.
But at that time after a nightshift I´m not 100% there, so I´m changing the route to one with no buses or fast traffic.


I really don´t recall seeing the bus signal. It probably did though. But they usually are behind me in the same lane, and allways wait for me to go through. So it never occured to me that it will pass me and not wait. It´s not like they should be in a hurry, there were hardly any other vehicles on that street, and it´s to early to try and beat rush hour.

Always aim for the door, in fact, if you can't help it then lean into it to ensure you don't get thrown into traffic.
I always try my best to stay out of the door zone though.

*plugs ears* la la la nothing can happen to me!

You must commute through ghost towns.

If those really were my only choices, i would choose neither.

I would hit the nice soft cab driver. :)

Ajem...

Guys, I was not making a poll here. It was more of a bad attempt of black humor statement to explain a scary moment I had. And which I guess some of you may have had too.
(Note to myself #3: Use more smilies)

Not that I really was in a position to choose, It all happened too fast. I just reacted by instinct.
I was really aware of the choices afterwards.
In any case, If the situation had come to my initial question I think that it would have happened like this ( :D ) :

1.- Go for the door.
2.- Hit the door.
3.- Fly over door.
4.- Get runned over by the rear wheels of the bus.
5.- Get runned over by car that would have come out of nothing.
6.- Get pissed by a dog.
7.- Die in the hospital by wrong diagnosis done by drunk doctor.
8.- The end.

AASHTO has some very dangerous bike lane designs that include on street parking. To make the schematics look better, the cars were drawn very undersized. IMHO, bike lanes and on street parking do not mix.

Having been doored & having hit a deer in my truck, I'll take a dooring every time. Just hit it square-on, and don't get deflected out into the next line, like Dana.

'Bicycle handlebars are typically 16 inches wide -- though some bicycles have handlebars as much as 24 inches wide for extra leverage when riding on rough terrain. The AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle facilities specifies a minimum of a 5-foot bicycle lane adjacent to a 7-foot parking lane, for a total of 144 inches. A bicyclist must, then, ride with a tire track no more than approximately 10 to 15 inches from the left side of such a lane (130 to 135 inches, or roughly 10 to 10 1/2 feet from the curb); to avoid the risk from car doors -- occasionally merging farther left to overtake the widest vehicles, and to overtake other bicyclists.'

A seven foot parking lane? 144 inches including bike lane? Let's do the math:
My lowly Geo Metro sedan is 108 inches wide, with one door open.
My wife parks it 18 inches from the curb - 126 inches
Whoops,that leaves 18 inches for our legal, two wheeled, HPV! Care to try it for a full sized SUV? Or even the Lincoln Town Car my mother drives?

Take the lane.

Just in case I wasn´t too clear on my initial post. :o

I was taking a lane. The rightcenter one. The one to the most right is a bus lane. But was taken by parked cars, because it´s legal until 8 AM (I think).
There is no bike lane on that street.
So that bus passed me on the center left one and tried to cross two lanes in front of me.

Note to myself #3: report the bus driver who almost ran me over.

Any bus driver who does not know the actual length of his/her bus needs to be reported.

As a city bus driver I can tell you that a lot of us "riders" are pretty reckless.